A Way to Change Things
by Alyas-Anne
Summary: In a stunning twist of events, Darth Vader emerges as the victor on Mustafar and takes his twin children back with him to the Empire. Now nineteen years old, Luke and Leia find themselves on increasingly different paths in a galaxy on the brink of civil war. AU.
1. Chapter 1: Lady Vader

A/N: Welcome to A Way to Change Things, an AU Star Wars fic. I write mostly from Legends, but a little bit of Disney may be thrown in. Please R&R!

XxXxX

 _Don't you see? We don't have to run away anymore! We no longer have to hide our love for each other. I am more powerful than the Chancellor, I...I can overthrow him! And together, you and I can rule the galaxy! We can make things the way we want them to be!_

-Anakin Skywalker

XxXxX

0 BBY

Leia Skywalker, Lady Vader, rolled her eyes as she sat in her box in the Imperial Senate and listened to the bickering of hundreds of star systems stretch into its' sixth hour.

Wearing a black military uniform and a cloak and veil to conceal her face, Leia was one of the youngest diplomats in the Imperial Senate at only seventeen years of age. The disguise was certainly not her idea, but Lord Vader insisted that anonymity was one of the most important tools that a Sith had at their disposal. Since her brother, the Imperial Prince, was in line to be the next Sith apprentice Leia didn't see why this rule needed to apply to her, but Vader was one of those people who didn't allow for argument. Leia was in a unique position in that she didn't represent a star system, but Lord Vader himself. She was his personal eyes, ears, and voice within the Imperial Senate, looking after his interests and keeping an eye on those who tried to cause trouble, especially the growing number of Senators rumored to be allying themselves with the troublesome rebellion.

The squabbling continued. Leia's hand itched for her lightsaber. While she had discovered that she was a better diplomat than she'd originally believed, sometimes she just wanted to _scream_. The majority of the senators were nothing more than corrupt bureaucrats too consumed with their own petty problems to get anything accomplished. It was so bad that Leia was struggling to uncover any information about the rebellion. It should have been easy, but it wasn't. This rebellion was not the disorganized mess she'd originally thought it was. They were growing, and they had credits to burn.

"The Vizier recognizes the delegation from Alderaan." Mas Amedda called out.

Leia snapped back to attention.

The Alderaanian pod floated into the center of the chamber. To Leia's surprise, Representative Madai stood to address the Senate. Where was Senator Organa?

"My fellow esteemed representatives, I come before you under the gravest circumstances. About a standard hour ago we received word that one of our counselor ships, the _Tantive IV_ , had been attacked by unknown forces. All further attempts to communicate with the ship have failed, and since it was last known to be in the Outer Rim we request an official team be sent to investigate."

"This is what happens when you insist on expanding your mercy missions to those barbaric planets!" The senator from Ansion called out from his pod. "You can't expect us to keep funding your ill-fated ventures if you can't even bring your ships back safely!"

There were scattered shouts of agreement across the Senate. Leia saw the representative clench his jaw and stand a little straighter. Ships were hijacked all of the time, especially in the Outer Rim. This wasn't something to bring before the Senate. Why was Representative Madai so nervous?

She reached out tentatively and touched the representative's mind. She didn't like using the Force to read other people's thoughts because even the weakest of minds could usually sense her presence, but Leia's instincts were lit up. The missing Alderaanian ship was important, she just had to figure out why.

Representative Madai looked directly at her. Leia suddenly felt like she'd been punched in the stomach and she rocked back as she was forced out of his mind. Confused, she tried to get back in, but felt a sturdy wall blocking her way. How was the representative blocking her? He wasn't Force-sensitive.

Leia was about to try a little harder when the Vizier called above the clamor for the session to end. The sudden movement around her broke her concentration and she lost sight of Representative Madai. She hit the balcony in frustration and stood up, adjusting her cloak as she stepped out of her box. Her two red guards snapped to attention. "Lady Vader."

The atrium was bustling with Senators and their aides. She could just see Representative Madai speaking with someone in the adjoining chamber as she forced her way through a group of chattering Selonians.

Then all of a sudden, she felt something. It was like seeing, smelling, and touching, and yet it was none of these things. The Force rippled around her as she ignited her lightsaber, turned, lunged between two arguing Ithorians and struck. The assassin's blaster, as well as his hand, fell with a thud to the ground.

There was instant chaos. Screams pierced the air as the diplomats scrambled for cover. Her two bodyguards pushed everyone back to create a wide circle containing Leia and her would-be assassin: a Human male clad in the gray robes of a Senate attendant.

Leia slashed her lightsaber through the air sharply before pointing her blue blade at the man's heart. She yanked her veil down. "Who are you?" She demanded.

The man cradled his wounded arm, grunting and sweating profusely. "A messenger."

Leia lunged forward, stopping her blade mere centimeters from his neck. "A messenger from who?" She asked fiercely.

The man closed his eyes. "Do it. I am not afraid."

"Who are you?" She asked furiously.

The man's eyes began to bulge. A horrible gurgling sound emitted from him as he suddenly spewed blood from his mouth. Leia just managed to shield herself with her cloak and when she looked again, she saw that his life force was gone. He was dead.

Confused, Leia deactivated her lightsaber. His wound hadn't been fatal, and she hadn't seen the man break a suicide capsule or use a hidden weapon…

Another bump in the Force caused her to look up. Her father stood in the open doorway with his hand outstretched.

"Father! I don't need you rescuing me." Leia said, annoyed.

"Clearly." Vader nodded towards the dismembered arm.

Darth Vader was not a terribly imposing man. He was slender but solid, with dark sandy hair that he kept cut short. His features were marred by a scar on his right cheek, an artificial hand, and two artificial legs; the by-products of a violent confrontation with his former master another lifetime ago. Still, he was not terrifying to look at, but there was an undercurrent of power and menace that even the most Force-blind could sense.

"Go back to Lady Vader's box and make sure her things are cleared out. She will be leaving Imperial Center tonight." Vader told the two guards. They bowed smartly and left.

"I can't just leave!" Leia objected as she deactivated her lightsaber. "The Senate reconvenes tomorrow and I think I might…"

"I won't discuss this with you here. Move." Vader pushed his daughter away from the dead man. Simmering with barely concealed rage, Leia nevertheless allowed her father to sweep her quickly through the darkening halls of the Senate lobby. Only when they entered a secure Imperial corridor that locked firmly behind them with an armed guard stationed on both sides did. Leia seize the moment and stop. She turned to face her father with her hands on her hips. "I'm not leaving. He never got close. You know that I can take care of myself."

"I know, but you aren't needed here anymore. That's what I came to tell you. The Emperor will be announcing within a few days that the Imperial Senate is to be dissolved."

Leia's eyes widened. "Dissolved? Why?"

"It's a remnant of the Old Republic that is no longer needed." Vader said bluntly. He motioned for Leia to walk beside him.

As they made their way through the dimly lit corridor, Leia tried to reach out to her father's mind, but Vader was even more closely guarded than usual. He seemed on edge, almost jittery. That was a bad sign. She didn't want to leave. Although she had initially been reluctant to come to Imperial Center, she had grown accustomed to her life here. Besides, working in the Senate kept her far away from the Emperor, which suited her just fine. "Where am I going, then?" She finally asked.

"For now, the Death Star. It is newly operational, and Luke will be there as well. There has been an...incident."

"What's happened?" Leia struggled to keep up with Vader's pace.

"A group of rebel spies infiltrated our base on Danuta and stole a set of blueprints for the Death Star."

"Really? That's...bold. Were they caught?"

"We were able to trace the spies to where they were transmitting the data to a ship…"

"The _Tantive IV._ " Leia murmured.

Vader nodded. "But when played back, the chit was blank."

"So they didn't actually steal them?" 

"That's the problem...the plans are still missing. _They_ certainly thought they had them. We don't want them to end up in the wrong hands, so I have sent one of the Emperor's Hands to intercept the ship out of an abundance of caution, but I don't expect to find anything. Likely these so-called spies were just typical bumbling rebel failures."

"Probably." Leia agreed. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"When the Hand catches up to the ship, I've given her orders to take prisoners. Your skills in diplomacy may be useful in case our...alternative methods fail."

"Alternative?" Leia stopped. "But the Empire has specific laws in place that forbid the use of excessive…"

"I am sure," Vader interrupted his daughter, "That you understand that certain allowances must be made in order to ensure the safety of the Empire."

Leia didn't answer. They stopped in front of a small door. Lord Vader punched in the access code and the door opened, revealing a landing pad with a small cruiser. Vader opened the hatch for her. "This ship will take you back to your apartments. Make sure you're packed, because you're leaving first thing in the morning."

"Yes, Father." Leia said with a sigh. She slid into the cruiser and closed the hatch. As they flew through the skyway she watched her father grow smaller and smaller in the encroaching twilight.


	2. Chapter 2: Patience

That night Leia sat on her bed flipping through her datapad as her handmaid packed her things. She was hoping to find something new about the hijacked Alderaanian ship on the HoloNet, but even the fringe sources were silent.

"My lady?"

Leia looked up. "Sorry?"

Her handmaid dipped a small curtsy. "I'm sorry, my lady. I only wanted to know where you would like your jewelry packed."

Leia looked down at the glittering array of necklaces, bracelets, and hair ornaments on her bed. She was usually pretty disdainful of jewelry, but had acquired quite a few pieces during her tenure in the Senate. "Somehow I don't think I'm going to be needing them that much." She muttered.

"What about this one? I don't remember seeing it before." Rabé asked, pulling a small wooden pendant out from the sea of silver and diamonds.

Leia snatched it away immediately. "That one stays with me." She said as she tucked it into her pocket.

"I'm sorry, my lady. It just looks so different. I've only seen something like it once before, but it was on my homeworld."

"And where is that?" Leia asked.

"Naboo." Rabé answered. "But I haven't been there in many years." 

"I see." Leia said softly. She reached up and touched the pendant absently. "Thank you, Rabé. I think I can finish from here."

"Of course, my lady."

Rabé curtsied again and left the room. When she was sure she was alone Leia pulled the necklace back out. She brushed her fingers gently over the carvings that had obviously been carved with care. What had the man called it? A japor snippet?

" _She gave it to me about a month before she died. She never went anywhere without that necklace, but she wanted me to save it to give to her unborn child...of course, there's no way that she could have known, but I think somehow she guessed that something terrible was going to happen…"_

Leia shoved the pendant back into her pocket.

She flipped her datapad back on. Nothing. There was nothing about the _Tantive IV_ , nothing about a security breach on Danuta, nothing even about the missing Senator Organa. It was like the whole thing wasn't happening.

Except Leia knew better.

She pressed a small button on the underside of her nightstand. A tiny hidden compartment opened up. Leia reached in and pulled out a small object. She opened her fist slowly, almost cautiously, as though she still couldn't quite believe what was there.

Inside her palm was a small data chit.

XxXxX

The next morning Leia was uncharacteristically quiet. She loaded up her belongings and closed the door on her apartment with a strange sense of foreboding. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she had a nagging feeling that she wouldn't be back. She didn't really even say much to her father. She could sense Vader's concern but she kept her guard up.

Once they were in lightspeed Vader opened his own datapad and pulled up a new report. He had always been the second in command of the Empire, but it seemed that his duties were always expanding. And this rebellion was not the weak collection of discontent star systems that he had once imagined. He had the feeling they were going to need to take more drastic action.

"You look tired."

Vader looked up to see his daughter watching him with sharp, observant eyes. "I'm fine." He said uncomfortably. Leia had a way of seeing things that he could hide from everyone else.

"What are you reading?" She asked.

"A report from Mandalore." Vader said as he shut the datapad off. "There are still cells on their moon that we have contracted to hunt down and exterminate any rogue Jedi Knights.

"But the Jedi were exterminated years ago." Leia said. "Surely there aren't any left."

"Never underestimate a Jedi. Their mastery at manipulation is surpassed only by their instinct to survive." Vader said darkly.

Leia had been barely alive when the Jedi Purges began, but she'd grown up hearing the stories- how the Jedi had risen up in rebellion against the Emperor and her father led the charge against them. An idea suddenly occurred to her.

"Father, instead of sending me to the Death Star, why can't I join the hunt for Jedi Knights?"

Vader paused. "Don't talk such nonsense, Leia. You are needed here."

"But why?" Leia pressed. "Luke is to be the next Sith apprentice, so there's nothing for me. Isn't that why you sent me to the Senate in the first place?"

"You were sent to the Senate because of your skills in diplomacy." Vader said evenly, but Leia could sense the growing anger in his words.

Anyone else might have backed down, but not Leia. She was stubborn in ways that she didn't fully understand. Instead, she scoffed. "Skills in diplomacy? You saw what happened with that assassin. My instinct is to attack first and ask questions later, that's hardly a suitable characteristic for a politician."

"The Jedi don't fight fair. And the ones who have survived this long are ruthless. What if something happened to you?"

"I don't need a babysitter!" Leia exclaimed. "You've trained me my entire life! Maybe I can't use the dark side, but neither do the Jedi and they must be powerful to make you so nervous."

She had touched a nerve. Vader stood to his full height. "You will not, under any circumstances, go after any Jedi. Period."

It seemed as though all of the frustration that had been quietly building up in her suddenly threatened to spill out. "Then what is going to happen to me?" She cried. "You gave me your lightsaber, you trained me to fight! I know that I struggle with the dark side, but I can't keep doing this! I don't want to just sit around and talk, I want to _do_ things! I can help you, let me do something!"

"I will not take any chances with you fighting any Jedi!"

"But you've said it yourself, I am the equal of any being in this galaxy! I can hold my own against both you and Luke…"

"As long as you don't touch the dark side, you will never be strong enough!"

Leia was stung into silence.

Vader sighed. "One day, when Luke becomes a Sith, things will be different. And the Emperor...won't be able to interfere."

"But why can't…"

"Because you are not ready, Leia! Luke is not ready. Patience is one of the core values of the Sith. You wait until the moment is right, and then you strike."

Leia groaned. It was always someday.

XxXxXx

Lord Vader's shuttle docked in the main hangar with little fanfare. Vader was not flashy like the Emperor and did not require a large party to mark his arrival. Captain Piett and a small squad of stormtroopers stood alone in the hangar to mark their arrival.

Vader and Leia stood at the hatch, waiting for it to open. They had not spoken in hours and Vader could sense Leia still quietly simmering beside him. But when the hatch opened and the waiting men snapped to attention, Leia held her head high and exited the ship with dignity worthy of a queen. She did, however, walk straight by Captain Piett without a word and exited the hangar, no doubt headed down to the training levels for an intense session with her lightsaber.

Vader watched her go with something akin to regret as he was approached by Captain Piett. "Welcome, Lord Vader. We have been expecting you."

"Let me know when my son arrives. I will be in my meditation chamber." Vader said curtly as he swept past Piett and the troopers without stopping.

"Oh...yes, Lord Vader." Captain Piett said, immediately flustered. "As you wish."

Only when he was safely immersed in his meditation chamber did Vader dare to let his thoughts expand. Emotion flooded his senses as he let his mind scatter amongst the stars. He began to drift. He knew that it did not do to dwell on the past, but sometimes Vader couldn't help himself. Sometimes he needed to feel again. All of a sudden he found himself back on the fiery planet where the last remnants of Anakin Skywalker had been destroyed and Darth Vader had risen from the ashes.

" _Twins, Padme." Anakin whispered. "Twins. And you were going to keep them from me."_

 _Sweat beaded on Padme's forehead. Her breathing was becoming increasingly shallow and sporadic. There was blood...too much blood...Anakin wrapped her in his arms, wanting to take her back to the safety of her star skiff but he knew they'd never make it, for his legs had been neatly cut off at the knees._

 _He held her close to his chest and began to sob. The vibrating motion jolted her back to consciousness and her eyes fluttered open. "Anakin…" She whispered._

" _Padme...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Anakin said in a broken voice._

 _She looked up at him, eyes wide open but unseeing. "Anakin…" She repeated._

 _She reached out a hand towards the wailing newborns when suddenly her arm fell limp and Anakin felt her entire body go still._

" _Padme...Padme!" Anakin cried. He shook her, but she didn't respond. After crying her name over and over for several agonizing minutes Anakin looked up with blazing red eyes to where the body of Obi-Wan Kenobi lay some twenty yards away._

 _"This is all your fault! I hate you! I hate you!"_

Vader shook himself, scaring the ghosts away. If he dwelled too long on these memories, he knew he might truly go mad. He had crawled in agony back to his starfighter, carrying his newborn children and he'd been forced to leave Padme's body on Mustafar. He told himself for the thousandth time that her ship had been crushed, there was no way her body could have fit in his fighter. This calmed him down a little, but Vader didn't even know if Padme's body had ever been recovered. Seventeen years later and it was still too painful for him to find out.

Composing himself, Vader reached out again, this time searching for his children. He could sense Luke, impatient as always, getting closer to the Death Star. And yes, down in the lower levels of the Death Star was Leia, her thoughts intently focused on the droid she was sparring with. Unbidden, a vision of her floated into his consciousness.

His daughter.

When he thought of her his heart ached. As fierce as she was and as brave as she acted, inside Vader knew that she was still a little girl. He knew that she felt lost, but he couldn't risk telling her his plans. That eventually, he and Luke would overthrow the Emperor and when they did, he would break the rule of two. Leia had not embraced the dark side as Luke had, but there were times in her training when the hatred would fill her and Vader could barely keep up with her. But then Leia would seem to realize what was going on and back down. It drove Vader crazy, but at the same time he knew that Leia wasn't quite ready to fully embrace the dark side. He also had to be careful. Having one child in line to be a Sith was threatening enough to the Emperor, but if there were two...no it was definitely too early.

But then, there were also times when Vader wanted to tell Leia the truth: that deep down he didn't want her to become a part of the Empire. That when he looked at Leia he saw her mother, and he couldn't bear to drive Padme away again.

It was a moment of weakness. He had to be hard on her. Only when the Emperor was safely disposed of could Leia fulfill her destiny. Only then would Vader finally feel that he and his children were safe.


	3. Chapter 3: The Last Possible Link

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter this week. I'm off to my first vacation in almost two and a half years, and I wanted to get something up before I go. As always, please R&R, you are all appreciated!

XxXxX

Luke Skywalker stared out of the cockpit of his imperial shuttle as the Death Star loomed closer and closer. He could easily sense his father already onboard, and when he reached out a little further, he found Leia down in the lower levels. _I'm almost there_ , he called silently to her. In response he felt a warmth that conflicted with his own bleakness.

As the captain began the docking protocol, Luke brooded. Details had been sketchy, but his father had summoned him from Kashyyyk awfully quickly. Something about rebel spies and a battle over Tatooine. Luke had been overseeing the redistricting of the Wookiee homeworld after yet another attempted revolt. The Wookiees that had surrendered had been rounded up and put into camps with conditions so horrible that it made even Luke's skin crawl. Keeping order in the Empire was one thing, but Luke was glad for an excuse to get away from the horrifying bloodshed.

The hatch opened slowly, and as Luke exited the ship he saw a lone figure waiting for him. Small, lithe, and with a haughty expression on her face, she scoffed as Luke walked towards her. "What are you doing here, Skywalker? I told them I could handle this."

Luke rolled his eyes. "When I heard about the skirmish over Tatooine, I thought the reports must be wrong because you were sent to track down the stolen plans, not give the rebellion more cause to organize."

Mara Jade crossed her arms almost petulantly. At a mere sixteen years of age, she barely reached Luke's shoulders. She was small and thin, with fiery red hair that cascaded down her back to her waist. She wore a plain black tunic and leggings, with a lightsaber strapped to her waist. She looked almost delicate, but Luke knew better. She was the Emperor's Hand and personal assassin.

"Senator Organa didn't have the tapes, and I searched everywhere. It was hardly even a battle because we must have outnumbered them four to one and it was over in a matter of minutes."

"How could he not have them? We traced the rebel spies to him. He was the last possible link!" Luke exclaimed.

The look Mara fixed on him was blazing. "I did everything that I could, alright? For what it's worth, _he_ thought he had them. He had the drive and everything but when we accessed it, it was blank. Besides, he may yet be of some use to us. I brought him back for interrogation, he's the best chance we have of finding their secret base."

"You did what?!" Luke exclaimed. He grabbed Mara's shoulder and jerked her close. "Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea what the Imperial Senate will do when they hear you attacked a diplomatic ship and kidnapped the ambassador?"

"As far as the Senate is concerned," Mara spat. "The _Tantive IV_ sent out a distress beacon, and when I answered it I found that everyone on board had been killed. So tragic. And by the way, bringing the senator here was Lord Vader's idea, so if you have a problem, you can take it up with him."

She shoved his hand off of her. "And if you ever touch me again, you'll think your father got off easy when Kenobi finished with him."

She stalked off with a haughty flip of her hair.

XxXxX

Down in the training levels of the death star, an assassin droid dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Leia hardly heard it fall as she held her lightsaber at the ready. The last assassin droid hovered above her, swerving back and forth as though deciding which way it wanted to strike. Suddenly it shot down towards her and Leia somersaulted as it began firing blaster bolts. She turned and easily parried the shots. One of the reflected shots hit the side of the droid and it faltered. Leia took the opportunity and mercilessly sliced through it. The droid crackled as it dropped to the floor. Leia exhaled softly.

Suddenly her senses pricked. She turned and swung her lightsaber, only to be stopped by a glowing red blade.

She looked up into her brother's teasing eyes. So he wanted to play, did he? The twins raised their lightsabers high, perfect mirror images, and then Leia swung down at her brother. The crimson blade met the blue with a crash. Luke parried with a twist of his wrists and spun away from his sister.

For a moment they stood there, daring each other to make a move. Then Luke deactivated his lightsaber, but Leia kept hers ready. Amusement flashed across Luke's face. "Leia?" 

She suddenly grinned. "It is unwise to lower your defenses." She said in a perfect imitation of their father.

The twins began to laugh. Leia deactivated her lightsaber and ran towards her brother. He caught her in a fierce embrace and spun her around. "I've missed you." Leia said as he sat her down.

"I've missed you too." Luke said. "I guess you've heard what's happened?"

"Yes. I can't believe the rebellion would be so bold." Her voice changed slightly. "And there's still no clue where the data is?" 

Luke shook his head. "None. I haven't spoken directly to anyone yet, but all reports agree that the rebels really believed their mission had been a success. It's strange how it could just disappear like that."

Leia nodded noncommittally. "Father brought me here in case the Hand brought back any captives."

"She did. It's Bail Organa, of Alderaan."

Leia stopped dead. "The Senator? He's here?"

Luke raised an eyebrow. "What's the big deal?"

She shook her head. "I just know him from the Senate. He has a lot of ties to the rebellion that I couldn't ever get a handle on." 

"Well, he just showed his hand. We were able to trace the rebel spies to him and he was caught flying in restricted airspace."

Luke could feel, rather than see, his sister's distress. Luke looked at her. "Are you worried about the mess you'll have to sort out in the Senate?"

Leia looked away. "I guess the news hasn't gotten around yet. Apparently the Emperor is dissolving the Senate."

Luke whistled. "So where does that leave you?"

She shrugged. "Interrogating Senator Organa, I suppose. Father mentioned something about my 'skills in diplomacy'. "

Luke grabbed her arm. "You don't think this is some plan of the Emperor's…"

"No." Leia cut him off. "Not even he would dare. You know what Father would do if he even tried."

Luke did know. The Emperor's hatred of the twins was no secret, but he had never made any attempts on their lives. And now with the growing threat of the rebellion, the Emperor's hold on power didn't seem as solid as it once had. They both knew that whatever the Emperor said, he still needed Darth Vader to direct his anger at the galaxy, and not the other way around.


	4. Chapter 4: Interrogation

_Sweat beaded across Leia's brow. The endless sea of lava was so bright it blurred her vision and she staggered in the suffocating heat. This didn't look like any planet she'd been on before. It looked like something out of a nightmare._

 _There was the unmistakable sound of lightsabers clashing. A voice, crying in despair, "I have failed you, Anakin. I have failed you."_

 _Leia turned the corner and saw her father dueling with a man clad in the robes of a Jedi Knight. The two men were balancing on droids that skimmed a river of molten rock. Their lightsabers crackled in the air as they met. Blow after blow, it was clear that the men were evenly matched and fighting to kill. Leia didn't dare yell for her father for fear of distracting him, but when she tried to run to intercept the Jedi she found that they didn't seem to get any closer._

 _All of a sudden the Jedi leaped onto the bank of the molten river while her father glared up at him. There was nowhere for Vader to go; the Jedi occupied the high ground._

" _Don't try it!" The Jedi warned._

 _Vader ignored him. He leapt up and attempted to sail over the Jedi, but the Jedi merely swung up with his lightsaber and neatly severed both of Vader's legs. Leia screamed in horror, but again, it was like she wasn't even there._

 _For a moment there was only the sound of Vader moaning in pain as the Jedi looked down at him sadly. The lava crackled menacingly mere inches away from what remained of Vader's legs._

" _You were the chosen one!" The Jedi cried as he deactivated his lightsaber. "You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"_

 _A woman cried out in the distance. Leia turned but she couldn't see who it was. She looked back at her father, whose face twisted into a mask of hatred and panic. The Jedi seemed to think that Vader was beaten, but Leia knew better. She felt the Force swell._

 _Vader reached out his hand towards the Jedi and began to constrict his hands. There was the unmistakable sound of bone snapping, and the Jedi's neck twisted in a horribly unnatural way before he crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap._

Leia awoke in a cold sweat. It took her several minutes to reorient to reality.

Only one word stuck out in her head.

Mustafar.

XxXxX

Several hours later Leia was walking down to the detention center tossing the word 'Mustafar' around in her head. What was Mustafar? It sounded like a planet, but Leia was fairly familiar with the layout of the galaxy and Mustafar didn't sound familiar to her. Was it a person? She wanted to ask her father, but knew that was probably a bad idea. If that had truly been a Force vision - Leia had never had one before, but had read about them in the imperial archives - she had witnessed the moment that her father had been mutilated by the rogue Jedi. She'd learned a long time ago that any questions about that day provoked unspeakable violence from her father. But what was that the Jedi had said about her father being a chosen one? She dismissed the thought as Jedi lies.

She pushed Mustafar out of her mind as she entered the control bay of the detention center. As soon as they saw her, the officers snapped to attention. "Lady Vader. We have been expecting you."

"I need the cell number for Bail Organa." She told the nearest lieutenant.

"2187." The lieutenant said promptly.

"Thank you." Leia said. "I shouldn't be too long."

She made her way down the detention block and stopped when she got to the senator's cell. After punching in the access code the door slid open and she stepped inside.

The cell was small, adorned with only a bench and a small table. The bench was currently occupied by a tall and sturdy-looking middle-aged human. He had dark hair with a close kept beard and olive skin that was currently littered with bruises. For a moment, Leia stared. After hearing all of the stories about him and seeing him from afar in the Senate, it was strange to see that this man was just that - a man.

At the sound of the door opening the man opened his eyes. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me."

"Oh, I would never do that." Leia said cordially. "We were just deciding what to do with you."

"Well, if you're the best that they've got, so far I'm not impressed." Bail said frankly.

Leia smiled. The senator's lunch tray shot off of his table and hit the opposite wall with a loud clatter. "Senator, I may be young, but I am not to be taken lightly."

Bail's eyes narrowed. "Wait, I know you. From the Senate. You're Lady Vader, aren't you?"

Leia inclined her head. "You have no idea how much trouble you've caused me over the last few months, trying to pin you down. I should have just sat back and waited, you were bound to slip up eventually."

When the senator didn't say anything, she continued. "It must have been the shock of your life to learn that the chit you'd stolen was blank. Personally, I don't care where they are; I'm interested in something far more valuable that you actually _do_ have. But you had to have known the chances of you getting away were practically non-existent, to have risked it all for nothing..."

Her taunting worked. Bail Organa lunged at her, fists ready. Leia nimbly stepped aside and Bail, already weak from his imprisonment, fell to the grown at a very awkward angle. She grabbed the back of his robe and with surprising strength for someone her size, picked the senator up and sat him back on the bench. "Where is the rebel base?" She asked harshly. "I'm only going to ask you this one time. Lord Vader will be here next, and he won't be nearly as gentle as me."

To her surprise, the senator began to laugh. "I don't know."

She slammed his shoulder against the back of the cell. "You're lying."

"Young lady, I'm under no illusions that I'm getting out of here alive. So why would I tell you anything?"

Leia leaned in close to his face. "You don't understand. There are things so much worse than death."

Bail met her gaze calmly. "Some things are worth dying to protect."

For a moment there was silence as they each sized their opponent up. Then Leia stood up. Without a word she turned and opened the door. After a few moments her father filled the doorway. She felt, rather than saw, Bail's sudden fear. "No luck?" Vader asked almost casually.

"None." Leia said. "He's made up his mind."

"Well, we'll see about that." He turned to the senator. "Your Highness, you will now discuss the location of your hidden rebel base with me."

A lieutenant entered the cell pushing a floating metallic orb in front of him.

A mind probe. Leia could see the syringe filled with interrogation serum glinting in the light. They were supposed to be illegal. This was going too far.

Leia looked at Vader. She didn't say anything, but Vader could sense her confusion and disapproval. What had she thought he was going to do? She was going to have to learn quickly that service to the Empire meant that sometimes you had to forget about the rules and get your hands dirty.

 _Father…_

He quickly cut her off. _He is the best chance that we have of crushing the rebellion. If I have to take drastic measures to get what I want, then so be it!_

There was nothing she could do. Leia didn't dare interrupt the proceedings any more. She felt Bail's eyes on her but she couldn't look at him as she left the detention center. As she made her way down the corridor, she heard Bail's cell door shut with a loud thud.

XxXxX

Luke had always been taught that fear stank worse than bantha fodder. And for the first time, he believed it. The council room was absolutely reeking. Eight Imperial generals, Grand Moff Tarkin, plus Luke and his father were clustered in a large sterile conference room. Most of the generals sat quietly, listening to a single man's rant.

"Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The rebellion is too well equipped, they're more dangerous than you realize."

Other than Luke, General Tagge was the youngest person in the Imperial council room, and in Luke's opinion, he was the slimiest. He had the arrogance and strut of a man who had risen quickly and dishonestly. He relied too much on blasters and terror, and was very vocally opposed to the presence of Vader, Luke, and anything he deemed 'hokey ancient religions'.

"Dangerous to your holdings perhaps, General, not to this battle station." General Romodi interjected wearily. Romodi had been around too long to be intimidated by hotheaded young officers, and he was too wary of Darth Vader and the Imperial Prince to deliberately antagonize them.

"With the Imperial Senate dissolved we have no way to keep an eye on star systems with suspected ties to the rebellion. Free from Imperial surveillance they are only going to grow." Tagge insisted. "We must move quickly to make a statement of power. This station is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it."

"But we have Senator Organa." Governor Tarkin reminded them. "He may have been resistant to the mind probe, but we have not exhausted all of our options. He knows the location of the rebel base and when he tells us we will strike."

"Oh yes, Senator Organa. Caught in an act of espionage against the Empire with a drive of stolen plans for this battle station," Tagge flung back. "Except the data is still missing. The fact remains that our networks were hacked and a copy of the plans were stolen. They are still out there and if we don't find them, a rebel sympathizer will."

"The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands." Vader assured the room, speaking for the first time. He nodded towards Luke. "My son will see to it."

Tagge scoffed. "Your son? That whelp barely out of his swaddlings? That's all we need, another sad devotee of that ancient mythology stumbling around as blind as the rest…"

Tagge's eyes suddenly bulged. He made an unnatural choking sound as his face began to turn an unnatural shade of blue.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Luke said rather mildly, his hand extended slightly towards the squirming General.

Tarkin looked from one Sith to the next. "Enough of this! Release him!"

"As you wish." Luke said nonchalantly with a flick of his wrist. Tagge immediately collapsed against the back of his chair, rapidly gasping for air.

Luke chuckled.

Tarkin banged his hand on the table to regain order. "This bickering is pointless. Now, the Imperial Prince is more than qualified to track down the stolen data tapes before any further damage can be done. And Lord and Lady Vader will provide us with the location of the rebel base by the time this battle station is operational. We will then crush the rebellion with one swift stroke."

After the officers left, Luke turned to his father. "That could have gone better."

"You didn't exactly help." Vader said icily.

"Please. Tagge is a spineless, sycophantic waste of a human being who wouldn't be able to find the stolen plans if they were delivered to him on a bantha."

"Of course he is, but that isn't the point." Vader said with an irritated wave of his hand. "We don't waste our time antagonizing insignificant scum like him."

"Fine. So do you still want me to go to Tatooine?"

Vader nodded. "None of the escape pods on the ship had been jettisoned, but the rebels were found above the planet, it's possible they could have ended up there."

"Father…" Luke said hesitantly.

"Yes, my son?"

"There seems to be another option that you haven't considered."

"And what is that?"

"Well, from everything that I have been told, it doesn't seem that the rebel spies ever had the plans. It sounds to me like they were intercepted somehow and given a fake. I don't know how, but Danuta is heavily patrolled. I don't think they were just dropped. Someone has them."

Vader nodded thoughtfully. "But that would mean the real theft was an inside job." 

Luke nodded. "Exactly."


	5. Chapter 5: Alderaan

That night Leia had been unable to sleep, so she'd stolen out of her chambers and down to an empty command post. She had tried to search for the mysterious Mustafar through the imperial network, but her search turned up nothing. She'd then hesitated for only a moment before hacking into her father's datapad, and this time, she'd found it. As she had suspected, Mustafar was a planet. In Vader's files, data on Mustafar was surprisingly easy to find, but nothing Leia found seemed to be of any importance. Mustafar was a desolate planet covered in boiling lava that had once been home to a thriving mineral mine owned by the Techno Union. It had been used as a base by Black Sun during the Clone Wars...none of this seemed relevant to her.

She banged her hands on the screen in frustration. The page detailing Mustafar's mining history jumped to the bottom. Leia looked up. The file concluded by saying that Mustafar's mining operations had ceased suddenly nineteen years ago on Imperial orders and the planet was subsequently abandoned.

Intrigued, Leia entered 'Mustafar' 'abandon' and 'Empire' into the search engine. She pulled up a file containing an old directive from the Empire declaring that the planet was becoming increasingly inhospitable due to rising levels of toxic gas from the mining operations. The directive ordered the planet evacuated and quarantined immediately, and was authorized by none other than Darth Vader himself.

Leia frowned. Now she was getting somewhere. What could possibly be on Mustafar that her father decided he needed a whole planet to hide? Mustafar had been quarantined the same year that she and Luke had been born, the year that the Clone Wars had ended. There was no way that was a coincidence.

Returning to the search engine she typed in 'Mustafar' and 'Port records', figuring that her father must have been on the planet at some point. She chose the records for the capital city of Fralideja and scrolled down to the bottom. About a standard month before the planet was evacuated, there was an abnormal flurry of arrivals to the planet.

 _Month 5  
Day 24; Centaxday  
10:15: Separatist cruiser Scarlet Star. 20 passengers, 5 droids, 7 crew_

 _12:45: Separatist cruiser Aggressor. 15 passengers, 7 droids, 7 crew_

 _14:55: Correllian freighter Limitless View. Five tons of minerals loaded_

 _16:33: Separatist cruiser New Day. 30 passengers, 15 droids, 10 crew_

 _Day 25; Taungsday_

 _11:00: Interceptor-class frigate. 2 tons of miscellaneous supplies delivered._

 _12:30: Separatist cruiser Racing Fancy. 10 passengers, 2 droids, 7 crew_

 _14:02: Delta 7-B Starfighter. 1 passenger, 1 droid_

 _15:00: Separatist cruiser First Flight. 50 passengers, 30 droids, 20 crew_

 _17:00: Naboo-class star skiff. 2 passengers, 1 droid._

Leia felt the Force tingling around her as she read the last few lines. Instinct told her that the starfighter was her father; there was plenty of documentation of his skills as a fighter pilot and at that point he would still be fighting in the Clone Wars. But what was her father doing arriving with a bunch of Separatists? Something told Leia that he wasn't there for peaceful negotiations. She felt an incredible warmth as she read the final line about the ship from Naboo, which she didn't understand. She didn't know anyone from Naboo.

She was struck by one more idea. She searched 'Mustafar' 'Fralideja' and 'security surveillance'. She selected the tapes for Month 5 Day 25, but instead of opening a giant message flashed across the screen.

 _PASSWORD REQUIRED._

She thought for a moment, then tried the codes she had used to break into her father's system. There was a loud whirring noise and a new message popped up.

 _ACCESS DENIED._

 _SYSTEM SHUTTING DOWN._

The screen went blank. Leia sat back in her chair in shock. She hit the power button several times but nothing happened. She began to panic. What if Vader could tell someone broke into his files? She stood and glanced at the screen one more time before rushing back to her chambers.

XxXxX

The next day Leia went back down to the detention block with renewed determination. She fingered the japor snippet around her neck absently as made her way down to Bail Organa's cell. The puzzle pieces were swirling around in her head, but she couldn't quite fit them together.

When she opened the cell door, she was shocked at his appearance. There were several fresh wounds all over his body, and he somehow looked smaller and frailer than he had been the day before. 

When he saw her he opened his eyes and commented weakly, "I really don't think I'm up for another round right now."

Leia shut the door behind her. "I'm not here to interrogate you. Let me see that." She gestured at the large cut on his left arm.

Looking confused, Bail extended his arm towards her. "This might sting a bit." Leia warned as she dabbed bacta on the wound.

Bail winced. "This is nothing compared to how yesterday went."

"What else did they do? A mind probe wouldn't do all of this." She gestured at his battered body.

"Electrojabbers, vibrocutters...you name it, he tried it. You weren't exaggerating when you said Vader could draw it out."

"That was nothing." Leia said as she wrapped a bandage around his arm and tied it in a knot. "Did you tell him anything?"

"No." Bail said resolutely.

"Good." Leia half muttered to herself.

Bail stared at her. "Does your father know you're here?"

"My...father?" Leia repeated.

Bail smiled grimly. "Young lady, I have not survived twenty-five years in the Senate by being unobservant. At first I thought you were just an acolyte of Darth Vader, but after seeing the two of you interact yesterday...I put the pieces together."

Leia tried to shake off her newfound unease. "No, he doesn't."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I have questions. And I think you might be the only person willing to answer them."

The senator frowned. "Well, you're very direct, I'll give you that. You remind me of your mother."

The mention of her mother completely threw Leia off-guard. "You...knew my mother?"

Bail nodded sadly. "I did."

"Senator Organa." Leia grasped his hands. "Please. Tell me about her."

"My dear, I don't think you're ready for what I would tell you."

"What do you mean?"

Bail looked away. "The past is such a mess. What should have happened...everything went so horribly wrong."

"But…"

The door to the cell suddenly opened and five stormtroopers entered the cell. "We have directions to bring Senator Organa to the viewing bridge." 

"On whose order?" Leia demanded, hoping that it wasn't her father. 

"Grand Moff Tarkin." The trooper said. 

"Well, Lady Vader commands you to leave this man in peace." She said firmly. 

"We were told to let nobody stop us. Excuse me, Lady." The trooper said and pushed her out of the way. Leia immediately threw herself back in between Bail and the trooper, but the second one grabbed her and held her steady while Bail Organa was roughly forced to his feet and marched out of the detention block. He looked fearfully back at Leia but she knew she was powerless to stop them.

Leia glared at the stormtrooper still holding her. "Do you realize who I am?" She asked as she forced her way out of his grasp.

"My apologies, Lady Vader. Governor Tarkin's orders." The trooper said uncomfortably.

"To hell with Tarkin." She said as she opened the door and sprinted down the corridor. She let the Force guide her to a turbolift that she took up to the main viewing bridge. _I have a bad feeling about this_.

As soon as the doors opened, Leia saw Bail standing between her father and Grand Moff Tarkin. The planet Alderaan loomed large in the window, quiet and peaceful.

"Governor Tarkin." Bail was saying sardonically. "I was wondering who they trusted to hold Vader's leash. I should have seen your hand in this from the moment I was brought on board."

Tarkin smiled silkily. "Senator Organa. Always a pleasure. You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life."

"What for? I haven't committed any crimes." Bail said indignantly.

"You were caught in restricted space carrying a drive containing stolen plans of this battle station with the intent of delivering them to the rebellion…"

"Have you been paying attention? I didn't have the plans…"

"A fluke." Tarkin interrupted smoothly. "A result of having substandard spies, not a lack of intent. But before your execution, I would like to you be my guest at a little ceremony that will make this battle station operational. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the rebel base, I have decided to test this station's power on your home planet of Alderaan."

Leia felt the ice cold fear strike Senator Organa. "No! Alderaan is peaceful, we have no weapons, you can't possibly…"

But Tarkin was relentless. "You would rather another target? A military target? Then name the system!" 

She saw Bail bite his lip, the conflict raging in his face. And as she watched him, she saw into his mind. She saw what he was going to do the moment before he did it, and as she glanced at her father, she also instantly knew that he had missed it. "Dantooine." He said finally. "They're on Dantooine." 

Tarkin smiled. "I knew you were a reasonable man, Organa." He turned to a junior officer. "Continue the operation. You may fire when ready." 

"What!" Bail exploded. Vader's grip tightened on his shoulder. Leia looked at her father in alarm. _Father!_

But his shields were up. She couldn't get through. Leia pushed harder. _Father, you have to stop this!_

"Unfortunately Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry. We'll get to them soon enough." She heard Tarkin telling Bail.

"No!" Bail cried.

Leia took a step forward and grasped the hilt of her lightsaber.

Suddenly Vader unleashed a large wave of power that made Leia stagger. Although he kept his eyes on the squirming Bail Organa, Leia felt the full brunt of his anger as though he was staring straight at her.

 _Take one more step and I will kill him._

Leia gasped.

In that instant, Alderaan exploded.

XxXxXx

Luke awoke with a start.

For a moment he couldn't remember where he was. Then the mud hut slowly came into focus and the smell of burning bantha dung filled his nose and he remembered. Tatooine. He was on Tatooine.

As the fog of sleep slowly cleared a dull emptiness began to creep through his veins and he instantly knew that Leia was hurting. He moved carefully so he wouldn't wake Mara on the other side of the room. She had been very explicit about what would happen if she even suspected Luke was trying to make a move on her, and he noted with detached amusement that she slept with one hand firmly grasping her lightsaber. He sat up slowly and sent out a silent call to his sister..

 _Leia_.

For a moment there was nothing, and Luke wondered if she'd heard him. He was about to try again when he heard it.

 _Luke_.

Suddenly the full force of Leia's being flooded his senses. He felt anger, stronger than he had ever sensed coming from his sister, almost bordering on frenzy. Then there was pain. Luke probed there cautiously and suddenly heard millions of voices crying out together before falling silent. There was a bright light and sudden fire and an armageddon the likes of which he'd never imagined...

Then it was gone. Luke tried reaching for Leia again but met only with her mental blocks. He looked over at Mara. "Mara, get up."

"Mhm, what is it?" Mara muttered sleepily. "Skywalker, I'm going to kill you."

"We're going back. Now. Something's happened."


	6. Chapter 6: Prison Break

After Bail Organa had been deposited back in his cell and left to contemplate his impending execution, Vader went searching for Leia. As soon as she'd regained her senses she had fled the viewing bridge and Vader had not wanted to make a scene in front of Wilhuff Tarkin by trying to stop her. Her location wasn't difficult to pinpoint; she was making no attempt to mask her emotions. She was in a righteous fury, and Vader couldn't really blame her. In all of her training, he had never taught her to deal with anything of that magnitude.

 _She shouldn't have needed to learn,_ a voice whispered accusingly in his head.

He found her down in the training rooms. Her blue lightsaber was powered up, and three training droids hovered in a circle above her. All of a sudden one of the droids dove at her, while the others bombarded her with blasters. She effortlessly parried the shots and sliced the first droid in half, pirouetting nimbly and sending the second droid flying into the wall with a wave of her hand. The third still hovered above her, and Leia spun her lightsaber in preparation as the droid finally decided to attack. It weaved left and right, firing shots in rapid sequence. Leia hopped back and forth avoiding the shots until she was backed up against a large block. She backflipped onto the top of the block and without pausing, leapt back into the air. The droid didn't know what hit it as she sliced into it from above. Leia landed with a soft thud, surveying the wreckage.

She walked over to a control panel on the far side of the room, and began violently punching in a code. As several droids came out of the storage room and began to clean up the mess, Vader reached out to Leia's mind. Through the cloud of her rage and confusion he felt something he didn't think he'd ever found before in either of his children: pain.

Sensing him, Leia immediately threw up her shields. "Leave."

"Leia."

She turned to face him. "What?" She said dangerously.

"I'm sorry that you had to endure that, but it was necessary. Traditional methods of interrogation weren't working, and we need the location of that base." Vader implored her.

Leia crossed her arms and glared at him. Outwardly she appeared frighteningly calm but inside, Vader could hear her screaming. Were he another man he might have gone and tried to comfort her.

"He gave you a system. And you still blew up the planet." Leia snarled. "Four billion lives lost in an instant just so you can prove that you have the bigger blasters."

"Sacrifices must be made in order to guarantee the safety and security of the Empire. You know this."

"Sacrifices?!" Leia said shrilly. "You felt them die as clearly as I did, Father. How can you stand there and try to justify it?"

She stood before her father, a full head shorter than him but her anger made her seem large. For a moment, Vader was proud of her.

"Your lightsaber is still ignited." He pointed out calmly.

And just like that, it disappeared. The anger melted away as she deactivated her lightsaber and changed back into the Leia that he knew. She pushed past him and got onto the turbolift. "Do not follow me." She said curtly as the doors closed.

XxXxX

"...I don't care what their excuses are. Nobody flies through this airspace right now, on the imperial prince's orders." Luke barked into his comlink.

"Of course, Your Highness. As you command." The voice on the other end stammered.

Luke paced back and forth on the viewing bridge. Most of the debris from Alderaan had settled into a pattern of movement; a newly formed asteroid field was all that was left to mark the existence of what had been one of the most cultured and educated planets in the galaxy. He had returned to the Death Star as quickly as possible after the planet exploded, but he had yet to see his sister. Knowing her, he was keeping his distance until she was ready to talk. But he couldn't sense her like he normally could. She was keeping her thoughts and emotions very heavily shielded, and it would have taken a braver man than Luke to try to break through.

"Your Highness."

Luke turned to see Tarkin approach. "Governor Tarkin." Luke replied evenly.

"Do you know the status of the scout ship that we sent to Dantooine?"

"They should be reaching the planet within the next few standard hours. We'll set our own course once was have confirmation that the rebel base is there."

"Very good, Your Highness." Tarkin said primly. He turned to look at the floating debris. "It's beautiful, isn't it? There won't be a star system anywhere in the galaxy daring enough to oppose us now."

"A masterpiece achievement." Luke answered flatly.

Tarkin caught the edge in Luke's voice. "Do you disagree, Highness?"

"Forgive me, governor, if I don't celebrate the senseless annihilation of four billion lives."

"Senseless?" Tarkin raised an eyebrow. "I prefer to think of as more of an insurance policy against any future insurrection."

"For the Empire, or for you?" Luke asked pointedly.

Tarkin managed to at least appear to look confused. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

Luke leaned in close to him. "I mean that I think you are a sycophantic narcissist who has managed to weasel his way into control of this battle station and you're worried that…"

"Excuse me."

Luke and Tarkin both turned. Leia had appeared silently behind him.

"Lady Vader." Tarkin greeted her, inclining his head towards her.

Leia ignored him. She looked up at her brother. "How long have you been here?"

"A few hours. I didn't know if you were ready to talk." Luke said carefully.

"Oh." Leia seemed off, somehow. Her presence in the Force seemed hazy, like she wasn't fully aware of where she was. "I didn't sense you."

"My lady, if I have offended you in some way…"

"Governor Tarkin." Leia interrupted him. The haze suddenly vanished and a flash of rage emanated from her that was so strong even Tarkin took a step back. "If I wanted to speak with you, I would. As it is, you're lucky that I haven't sent you out to join Alderaan. Leave."

"My lady…"

Leia ignited her lightsaber and thrust the blade mere inches from the governor's neck. "I said, leave."

"Yes, my lady." Tarkin said silkily.

Luke watched him go. "He'll find a way to make you pay for that."

"I don't care."

She turned to the massive viewscreen and stared at Alderaan's remains. For a long time she was quiet. Luke could faintly sense her trying to keep her emotions under control.

"You know, I haven't been in space for a long time." Leia said quietly, not taking her eyes away from the vast emptiness. "I forgot how quiet it is. Imperial Center is always noisy, even in the middle of the night."

"Leia." Luke gently tugged on her elbow. "Alderaan's destruction wasn't your fault. You didn't cause it to happen..."

"...but I didn't stop it!" Leia interjected, suddenly furious again. "I barely even tried! I was so afraid of our father that I just froze!"

The chair that was standing next to her flew across the room and hit a large monitor with a loud crack. Luke ducked instinctively but Leia seemed to get herself back under control. She clutched the handrail tightly with both hands and Luke was startled to see her shoulders shaking with tightly controlled sobs. Slowly, cautiously, he reached out and gently touched his sister's back. "Leia…"

"I want to hate him." Leia murmured. "I want to hate them all."

"But you can't." Luke finished for her.

Leia looked at him. "Sometimes...I don't believe that what we've been taught is right. I try...the Force knows that I try. It's not that I don't feel the dark side and want the power sometimes. When I let myself go, when I let myself touch that power, it's engrossing. I feel like I could do anything I wanted. But when it's gone...I'm afraid of it. I'm not like you."

"I know." Luke said simply. "Nobody expects you to be."

"Father does." Leia said bitterly. "He told me I'm not strong enough."

"But you aren't me, you're you, and you're perfect the way you are. Once I am a Sith I can change the rules. There won't have to be just two. I will make things the way that I want. The way that we want."

She fixed Luke with a level gaze. "You know, I'm sure our father thought the same thing. Once."

XxXxXx

Leia sat with her brother and father in the council room awaiting the report from the scouts sent to Dantooine. While Luke and Vader were fervently talking back and forth, she was unusually quiet. Internally she was squirming because she knew in her core that Bail had lied, and the rebel base was not on Dantooine. She dreaded the storm that would come when he found out, and it was taking almost all of her concentration to hide the fact that she knew Dantooine was a dead end. If Vader found out he'd want to know why she'd kept quiet, and that was a discussion that Leia was absolutely not ready to have.

"Going forward, I am no longer concerned with the stolen plans." Vader was saying. "Once we have confirmation that the rebels are on Dantooine we will wipe them out before they have the chance to strike."

Leia shifted slightly in her seat. Neither her father or her brother seemed to notice.

"And if someone else does have them?" Luke asked. "Some lowly officer could easily have spirited them away in the confusion and sold them to the highest bidder."

Vader waved a hand dismissively. "Even if they did, the rebellion is the only collective large enough and strong enough to make any kind of trouble. Once they are eliminated, the stolen plans will be insignificant."

A commander walked into the room and snapped to attention. Immediately, Luke sat up a little straighter. Something was wrong.

"Yes?" Vader said.

The commander straightened up nervously. "Our scout ships have reached Dantooine. They found the remains of a rebel base, but it looks like it's been deserted from some time. We are preparing a search of the surrounding systems."

"He lied." Vader said, outraged. "He lied to us!"

Despite herself, Leia felt a flush of pleasure. _Good_. Vader looked at her suspiciously. "Did you know?" He asked.

"No. But I told you he'd never consciously betray the rebellion." Leia retorted.

Vader banged his hand on the table in frustration. "He's outlived his usefulness. He will be executed tomorrow."

Leia felt ill. There was a cold lump in her stomach. It had been there since Alderaan was destroyed.

She thought there was something wrong with her. Vader and Luke were so unaffected by the planet's destruction. Sacrifices had to be made. She knew that. A Sith lived their life with no regrets. They did what was necessary, and they did so without mercy.

And yet...

Leia was no Sith. She thought of all of the things she had been. Imperial Advisor in the Senate. Lady Vader. Daughter and sister of Sith Lords. They were titles without power. And without power, she'd never be able to change anything. She might wake up one day and find herself to be no different from her father: reduced to acting as a lapdog and always waiting for an opportune moment that was never going to come.

Without fully thinking about what she was doing, Leia rushed back to her chambers. She sat down on her bed and closed her eyes, drawing the Force around her to give her strength. She checked to make sure that her lightsaber was secure on her belt, and added a blaster to her holster. Before she left she grabbed a dark cloak and pulled the hood over her head.

When she got to the detention block, she was met by a frowning officer. "This area is restricted to authorized personnel only." He said firmly.

Leia reached out and nudged his mind. "This is a surprise inspection." She said.

The officer's eyes seemed to glaze slightly. "An inspection? Of course, my lady."

"You will evacuate this unit while I conduct my inspection." Leia continued. "You will delay your return for fifteen standard minutes."

"I will evacuate the unit for fifteen minutes." The officer repeated. He signaled, and the troopers in the control center followed him out.

Leia smirked. She loved that trick.

It took her only a moment to make her way back to Senator Organa's cell. When she got to the door she paused, asking herself for the thousandth time what exactly was she doing. But then the ache of millions of deaths echoed in her bones and she took a deep breath, steeling her resolve.

When she opened the door, Bail was laying with his back to her. He didn't react to her entrance, but Leia wasn't fooled. He wasn't asleep. "Get up." She said.

Hearing her voice, Bail turned to look at her. He seemed to have aged a hundred years in the span of a day. "What do you want?" He asked bitterly.

"This is a rescue." Leia said bluntly.

"What?" Bail asked, sitting up.

"This is a rescue. I'm getting you out of here." Leia pulled him to his feet. "Can you shoot?"

Bail stared at Leia in amazement. "Of course I can shoot."

"Good." Leia shoved the blaster in his hand and reached into her boot. "And take this. It's what everyone has been looking for."

In her hand was the drive of stolen plans.

"Where did you get that?" Bail asked quickly as he shoved the chit in his pocket.

"Your spies never had them." Leia said softly. "They only thought they did."

Bail looked stunned, but the look on Leia's face prevented him from asking any more questions.

Leia peered out of the cell. The control center of the block was still empty. "We've got about ten minutes before the guards come back. Now, I can get you to a ship but I can't go with you. I'll try to make sure that they don't fire at you, you just get those plans to the rebellion."

"Why are you doing this?" Bail asked her.

She turned back to look at him. "Your wife. Queen Breha. She was on the planet, wasn't she?"

Bail's voice wavered. "Yes."

"I felt her die. I felt every single one of them die, and I didn't stop it. Maybe I couldn't have, but I should have tried."

Bail touched her gently on her shoulder. "There wasn't anything you could have done."

Leia closed her eyes, remembering the pain. "But I can do this." She opened her eyes with a renewed determination. "Let's go."

"Wait." Bail stopped her. "In case something happens…"

"It wont'." Leia interrupted.

"But still." Bail said firmly. He looked around, and lowered his voice. "If the time comes, you should know where to go."

He whispered something in Leia's ear. Her eyes widened as she nodded in understanding and pulled him out into the prison block.

When they got to the hangars, Leia pulled Bail into a small alcove. There hadn't been any difficulty getting that far, but the hangars were always busy. Plus, she didn't want to risk running into Luke or Vader. Leia reached out, searching for them. Luke's thoughts were scattered and she had no difficulty finding him pacing back and forth on the bridge. Her father proved to be a little more difficult, but she finally found him in a deep meditation in his chambers.

"We should be clear from here." She murmured.

She felt a mental tug. There was a single blaster shot. A sudden feeling like she'd been punched in the stomach pulled her out of her trance and back to reality.

She turned around just in time to see Bail crumple to the ground.

Stunned, Leia stared at the lifeless form of Bail Organa. She slowly looked up at the platoon of stormtroopers that had stumbled upon them. The one in front still held his blaster loosely at his side. "Lady Vader, are you alright?" He asked her.

But she didn't hear him. Everything around her seemed to be going dark. Hatred - sticky, thick, and black - bubbled up in her core, rising hotter and faster than anything she'd ever felt before. She dimly heard her lightsaber ignite before everything went black.


	7. Chapter 7: Betrayal

With a jolt, Leia came back into herself. She blinked, momentarily confused. Then everything began to come back into focus. She looked around. The ground was littered with dead stormtroopers. Five, ten, twenty, she stopped counting. She began to breathe very quickly. Every single one of them bore lethal lightsaber wounds.

The room began to spin. Other than the assassin on Imperial Center, she had never actually used her lightsaber on anything other than droids. Blindly she reached into Bail's pocket and grabbed the chit before stumbling away as crippling waves of nausea rocked her core.

 _I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine._

XxXxX

A torrent of anger crashed into Vader, breaking him out of his meditation.

 _Leia_. He gasped as if he had been punched in the stomach.

He had never felt anything like this from his daughter. She wasn't just upset...that was a feeling Vader was unfortunately very familiar with. This was...rage. Frenzy. Ferocity. And the sensation of death permeated it like cold tendrils of fog. For the briefest moment it was like he could see through her eyes and he saw the dead stormtroopers. He saw the wounds. He knew what had happened.

He had to get to her. He had to stop her before...he didn't even know. Didn't even want to consider the possibilities.

 _Leia, what have you done?_

XxXxX

Leia was half sprinting, half stumbling down the corridor away from the bodies towards the main hangar when she froze.

She felt him approaching, knew there was no way to avoid him. She could usually shield herself from him when she wanted, but not this time. He was walking straight towards her, it was like his very presence stripped away all of her barriers. She clenched her lightsaber tightly before forcing herself to relax. This was her father. He wouldn't hurt her. He couldn't...

She straightened up and reached for the Force to calm herself as she continued walking. There he was, standing in the doorway waiting to intercept her. He seemed pale, his eyes sunken and slightly bloodshot. He took a few steps toward her, arms hung loosely at his side. Leia stopped and planted her feet firmly, standing her ground.

"Father."

"Leia." Vader said quietly. "What have you done?"

Leia didn't answer. She never had been very good at reading her father, his presence in the Force seemed very murky, and her instincts were telling her to tread very carefully.

Vader took a step towards her and despite herself she automatically stepped back. "Did you kill those men in the corridor?" He asked.

She straightened, finding her voice at last. She knew that lying would do her no good. "Yes."

"Why?"

She took a deep breath. "Because I wanted to."

There. Let him figure that one out. She stuck her chin out defiantly.

Vader stared at her as though he didn't know her. Leia could see him tossing her words around in his head, trying to spin them so that he could explain her actions. Explain to who, though? The Emperor? _Tarkin_? Leia's blood boiled at the thought of her father having to explain anything to that lowly lecherous governor.

After a long moment Vader went to grab her arm. "Come on. You're going back to Imperial Center."

Leia jerked away from him and stared at her father in disbelief. " _What?_ "

"I brought you here because I thought that you were ready to serve the Empire, but apparently I was wrong. You're going back to Imperial Center so I can try to fix the mess that you've made."

The thought of going back to Imperial Center, even without the Senate, was agonizing. Leia wasn't a politician. She didn't want to be shut away again, she wanted to _do_ things!

Then, the truth hit her. The dread in her stomach grew as she looked up at her father and found him to be unrecognizable.

"It's you." She whispered. "It's been you all along."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been the one standing in my way. I always tried to help you, but you never let me. I thought I was weak, but I'm not, am I?"

"I don't…"

"There is more to the Force than you've been telling me, isn't there?" Leia challenged her father. "How else could I do the things that I've done and still struggle with the dark side?"

When Vader didn't answer, she reached into her boot and pulled out the disc. "How else could I have had this the entire time and you never knew?"

For the first time in her life, Leia succeeded in shocking her father. His eyes widened and he took a threatening step towards his daughter. "Give me that."

"No."

"And what exactly are you going to do with them?"

"I'm taking them to the rebellion."

Until she said it, Leia hadn't fully realized what her plan was. But she was going to do this. Nobody else was going to die, not if she had anything to say about it.

"No, you're not."

Leia gave a maddened laugh. "Who is going to stop me? You?"

"That's not something that I want to do."

"I'm not sure it's something you can do." Leia shot back.

"Leia, it's alright. Maybe I should have eased you into things a little slower. Your last few days have been traumatic. I understand." Vader sighed. "But you don't know what you're talking about. Now, for the last time, _give me those plans_."

Leia slipped the plans back into her boot. "You'll have to take them from me, _my lord_."

Vader's hand drifted to the lightsaber hanging from his belt. The red lightsaber ignited with a hiss. "Leia, don't make me do this."

Leia searched within herself ready to banish the fear, but she found there was none. He had more experience but she was younger, more agile. She had trained with him for years and knew his fighting style as well as her own. And there was something...she couldn't quite identify it, but she could feel it. She could beat him. She was stronger than him. She thought now that maybe she always had been, but she had always held herself back, never believed in herself But maybe the Force was different from what her father had always taught her. Maybe she didn't need the darkness to be powerful. Maybe there was a way to use the dark and the light to be strong. To actually do something, make things the way that she wanted. She backed up and ignited her lightsaber. The cerulean blade hummed ominously.

 _You're not ready for this._

"Stay out of my head!" She growled.

Leia looked straight into her father's eyes. She felt calm. She felt powerful.

She raised her lightsaber and attacked.

Darth Vader relied on his larger size to overwhelm his opponents. He immediately swung down hard, forcing Leia to parry from below. She gritted her teeth at the effort but managed to throw him off and quickly sidestepped out of his path before doing a backflip to get herself out of his immediate range. She then immediately launched herself back at her father and swung at his neck, a move that he easily blocked. Vader twisted his wrists so his blade forced hers away from him and she spun with her lightsaber. Vader then tried to catch her from behind but she twisted to meet him and then leapt away.

Vader raised his lightsaber high in the air and circled his daughter. She too raised her blade but refused to meet him. She tried to summon the raw emotion she had felt in the corridor with the stormtroopers. This time, Leia was sure she could control it and use it against her father. She remembered the mind probe and the fear in Bail Organa's eyes. She remembered the feeling of Alderaan exploding. Finally, she remembered the pain and horror she'd felt coming from Bail as he died. All of these things had transpired because her father had allowed it, and the more she remembered the more she saw her father as her enemy and her anger grew.

She rushed her father in a frenzy she'd never known. Blow after blow, barely conscious of what she was doing, she swung at her father. Sparks showered around them as red met blue again and again. She managed to beat her father back when she heard his voice in her head again, taunting her.

 _Only a Sith deals in absolutes._

Leia hesitated. She felt the Force warning her of the incoming blow, but she was too slow. The hilt of her father's lightsaber slammed into her chin, momentarily stunning her. Vader reached out and flung Leia against a wall. She collapsed and lay motionless on the ground.

Vader sighed. He advanced on his daughter as she moaned and stirred feebly. "Leia, it doesn't have to be this way." He coaxed her. "We can go back to Imperial Center. Nobody has to know what you've done."

It was the wrong thing to say. Her eyes flew open and she leapt to her feet.

All of a sudden Vader stepped back in alarm. "Where did you get that?"

For a moment Leia was warily confused until she followed his gaze to the japor snippet that must have fallen out of her tunic when she fell. "I'm told that it belonged to my mother." She said fiercely as she tucked it back away. She was still slightly woozy from being slammed into the wall, and held her lightsaber across her body defensively.

Vader reached out his hand. "Give it to me."

"Never." She hissed. "You took her away from me once. I'm not going to let you do it again."

And there it was. All of the anger, frustration, and sadness of nineteen years of existence suddenly became focused. Leia had been robbed of a mother, had not even known her name, and had been left as the outsider in her family. Had Vader done something to Padme? Images of her mother dying at Vader's feet filled her mind. A lightsaber through the heart, suffocating as the Force closed her throat...the possibilities made Leia's blood run cold.

Vader's face twisted into a mask of hatred and he charged his daughter. He swept low, aiming at her feet. She clumsily leapt over the blade and immediately turned and swung again. Vader quickly twisted and blocked her. She pulled back, instinctively wanting to aim for his unprotected abdomen but the Force warned her otherwise. Vader swung back in the same direction she had just blocked, forcing her to twist and counter a blow that could have easily severed her spine.

There was a horrible tingling sensation radiating down her legs from being thrown into the wall, and the sleeve of her tunic was singed where she'd let Vader get too close. She was also fighting to keep from breathing heavily, lest her father see how tired she was. Her newfound confidence was fading. As angry as she was, Vader was still her father, and her reluctance to truly hurt him was costing her. Vader, on the other hand, was getting more ferocious in his attacks. She sensed his rage and she knew it was directed at her. She had seen her father like this before; he might very well kill her and not realize it until later.

 _If I don't end this soon, I may not get out of here alive._

She looked around frantically. Throwing something at Vader wouldn't work, there was nothing large enough to work, and he would surely be able to deflect it too quickly for her to be able to get away. There really wasn't anything in the corridor for her to work with, until…

Her eyes followed the path past Vader to where it forked. The right side continued the main hallway, but the left veered off to what looked like it could be a minor service corridor. What caught Leia's attention was the hatch that was wired into the doorway to the smaller corridor. If she could get past that hatch and lock it even for a few moments, it would buy her enough time to get away from her father.

She looked back at Vader and raised her lightsaber. She somersaulted over him and forced him to block her blow from above. As soon as she landed on his other side she kicked him as hard as she could in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.

Pain shot up her leg but she forced herself to keep moving. She sprinted to the service corridor and attempted to close the hatch, but it wasn't working. She could hear her father swearing behind her and she jabbed the buttons frantically before stabbing the control panel with her lightsaber. The hatch closed.

For a moment, Leia stopped to catch her breath. But then she realized that the center of the door was getting warm to the touch and beginning to glow orange, and she knew that she didn't want to be around when the Sith lord got through that door.

Turning, Leia ran down the hallway as fast as she could, without a solid plan of what her next move was going to be.

She finally made her way into the hangar in a panicked haze, keeping her head down. She wasn't fully conscious of where she was going until she dared to look up and she zeroed in on a TIE fighter.

She walked quickly up to the fighter dock and began punching in the access codes. Her hands were shaking so badly that the screen flashed red. Access denied.

Leia swore. She entered the codes again, this time correctly. The gate opened and she climbed up the ladder to the platform. She began rapidly running the preflight checks, knowing that once they were done she'd only have a few moments before her unauthorized departure was detected.

Suddenly, Leia felt her brother coming. She only worked faster.

"Leia!" She dimly heard Luke calling her from behind.

She ignored him.

"Leia!"

She could feel the Force rippling as he reached out to her, trying to figure out what she was doing. She gave him a mental shove and hit the computer screen, willing it to work faster. But Luke persisted, and she could feel him trying to calm her down.

This time, Leia would not be placated.

She began to climb into the cockpit of the fighter when an invisible force suddenly ensnared her wrist, forcing her to stop. She whirled around to see Luke reaching his hand out to her, holding her tight. Leia suppressed her growing panic and fought back. Her mouth twitched as she struggled against her brother.

 _Luke! Let me go!_

There was a beep. The preflight checks were complete. Immediately an alarm pierced the air, alerting the control bay to her activity.

There was instant chaos. Storm troopers scrambled and began to set up heavy ranged blasters pointed in Leia's direction. But then the men closest to her looked up and recognized her and tried to call the others off. Knowing that she likely only had moments before things really got out of hand, Leia forced her attention back on her brother.

 _Luke!_

Finally, she heard him whisper,

 _You can't leave me!_

From across the hangar the twins' eyes met, and Luke thought he saw the ghost of a smile flash across Leia's face.

 _I'm sorry._

And she pushed.

Luke flew backwards and into the corridor. Leia pointed at the blast doors and they slammed shut, locking him out. One final glance jammed the door controls and she climbed into the waiting TIE fighter and closed the hatch.

She could still hear the alarms blaring in the background and forced herself to block them out. She turned on the power and hit the accelerator. With a loud roar her TIE fighter rocketed out of the hangar and into space, leaving a slew of stunned Imperials behind her.

XxXxX

Leia was exhausted. All she really wanted to do was switch the TIE fighter to autopilot and let her mind rest, but she had just enough rationality left to know better.

" _If the time comes, you should know where to go."_

Yavin 4. He had given her the location of the rebel base. If Leia had been allowing herself to feel anything she might have cried. Bail must have known what Leia had refused to see: he knew he was never going to make it off of that battle station alive. He had prepared her to finish what he started.

So she knew where to deliver the chit. However, TIEs were only built for short range fighting, and a quick glance at her data screens told her she'd never get to Yavin 4 on her own. She had to find a bigger ship.

The closest planet popped up on her screen. Anoat. There wasn't much there anymore except for several battalions of Imperial troops and Leia was sure the days of her relying on her Imperial connections were over. If she was going to do this, she was going to have to fly under the radar.

Another planet popped up. This one was Tatooine. There wasn't much there either and she was about to skip to another planet when she paused.

According to the database it was small - mostly desert - and sparsely populated. The Hutts had a strong presence there, but the Empire didn't have any quarrels with the Hutts. Even better, it was home to several large space ports. She knew she'd be stretching her TIE's capabilities, but she thought she could make it. The more she thought about it, the better it sounded.

She punched in the coordinates for Tatooine and set the ship to autopilot. The stars around her stretched into a blur as she made the jump to lightspeed and left behind the only life she had ever known.


	8. Chapter 8: Tatooine

Leia's TIE fighter made it to Tatooine. Barely.

She had set her coordinates for the planet's capital, but her alarms had been sounding before she even entered the system. She was low on fuel, her hyperdrive was failing, and her overall power was running out. She diverted most of the power from her deflector screens to her engine and altered her course to the closer city of Mos Eisley. Even still, it was only just enough.

She half-landed, half-crashed in the outskirts of the city, a little too close for Leia's comfort but in the end she hadn't had much of a choice. As soon as the dust cleared she unlocked her seatbelt and tried to climb out of the cockpit, but it seemed like all of the clips, buckles, and braces that were intended to protect her now seemed to be preventing her from escaping. Finally she succeeded in freeing herself and she climbed to the top of one of the fighter's wings and looked around.

If she stood on her tiptoes she could just see the domed roofs of Mos Eisley in the distance. She suddenly realized that she looked too much like an imperial officer and she quickly removed her jacket and let it drop. She carefully unwound the braids on her head so they hung loose, and ripped the imperial insignia off of her sleeves and tossed them into the fierce desert wind. Her sudden anonymity briefly caused her to panic. Even on Imperial Center her environment had been very tightly controlled. Food, water, shelter...she'd never had to search too hard for anything. For the first time in her life, Leia was going to truly be on her own; she knew she couldn't use her imperial connections without attracting attention. For a moment she fought against the pathetic but overwhelming desire to drop her shields, call out to her father to come get her, cry, and beg for forgiveness. But deep in her heart she knew that she had gone too far; her relationship with her father was irreparably changed, perhaps ruined. She had to keep going.

She leapt down off of her TIE fighter and made her way towards Mos Eisley. As soon as she entered the settlement she felt like she was being watched. She furtively glanced around but didn't see anyone overtly watching her; but the feeling persisted the further she walked into town. She must have still looked too alien to the city. She ducked into the nearest trading post that she saw, and after a quick exchange and a few credits she walked out of the shop dressed in a sand colored tunic, brown pants, and a matching cloak. A few more discreet credits bought the shopkeeper's silence and directions to the nearest cantina. When she got to Chalmun's Cantina she had some serious doubts about her ability to find a pilot to take her to Yavin 4, but the shopkeeper had insisted that some of the best pilots could be found there.

Inside it was hot, dark, and noisy. She squinted as her eyes tried to adjust to the light. A band of Biths were playing a lively tune. Moving inward, she was astounded at the variety of species in the bar. Sure, she had seen beings from other planets while she was in the Senate, but that was always from the safety of her own pod. Now she felt...exposed; her senses were flooded with more smells, sights, and languages than she could possibly comprehend. She spotted a group of rough-looking humans on the far side of the bar. _Corellians._ They were known for being ace pilots and, more importantly, reputed to be very good at flying under the radar.

She tried to make her way over to the Corellians, but the cantina was very crowded and she had to elbow her way through. In the crush she accidentally stepped on someone's foot and she honestly wouldn't have stopped to apologize if a hairy hand hadn't reached out and grabbed her arm. Hard.

She turned to face her assailant. It was a...well...Leia wasn't really sure what he was. He had a bald head, fur around his jaws, large round eyes, and two enormous tusks that covered much of his mouth. His breath also stank. She'd certainly never seen anyone like him. Behind him was a stocky looking man who looked like he _might_ have been human but at some point had ended up on the wrong side of a knife and now he bore an uncanny resemblance to a rodent. The creature holding Leia's arm was talking rapidly in a language that Leia didn't know.

"He doesn't like you." His companion explained.

"Okay." Leia said, unimpressed. She jerked herself free and turned back to look for the Corellians. The rodent-looking man reached around his friend and grabbed her arm again.

"I don't like you either. I saw you walking into town earlier. We don't hold too well with Imperials around here."

"What makes you think I'm with the Empire?" Leia asked coolly. Her hand slowly moved towards her lightsaber. The man didn't notice.

He scoffed. "Lady, I'm not stupid. Or blind. Your face has been all over the HoloNet all day. Wanted by the Empire."

Leia felt herself go cold. "Excuse me?"

The man leered at her and pulled out his datapad. Sure enough, there was Leia's face with the words "WANTED BY LORD VADER" written above it.

And a two million credit bounty listed below it.

The man tucked his datapad back in his pocket. "Now, this says that he wants you alive, but he didn't specify in one piece. So are you going to come quietly, or are we going to have to make you?"

Leia answered by igniting her lightsaber and swinging. One of the alien's hairy arms suddenly fell to the ground with a lifeless thud. There was instant chaos as the two bounty hunters shrieked and the rodent-looking human pulled his companion out of the bar. A few of the cantina patrons screamed and tried to escape, but after a few moments the majority of them seemed to collectively shrug their shoulders and then returned to their own affairs.

Leia deactivated her lightsaber and clipped it back on her belt with some difficulty. Her hands were shaking.

He had put out a bounty on her.

That explained why she'd felt like she was being watched. Every bounty hunter in the galaxy would be after her for that amount of money. She looked around, but nobody else seemed to be paying her any attention. Yet. She had to get out of there, she knew there was no chance she hadn't already been tracked to Tatooine. She needed to keep moving and she needed to move fast. She turned around to slip out of the cantina…

...and ran right into a Wookiee.

She slowly looked up at the Wookiee with dread. They had a reputation for being both capable of and willing to rip the limbs off of humans, and Leia vividly remembered Luke's stories from his time quashing rebellions on Kashyyyk. Her hand automatically went back to her lightsaber, but this Wookiee just looked down at her with a quizzical expression. He picked Leia up as easily as if she weighed nothing and put her down a few steps away and brushed off her shoulders. She relaxed a little bit. "Sorry." She said slowly.

The Wookiee harrumphed and shrugged his shoulders. She looked at him closely. Her Shyriiwook was decent thanks to her time in the Senate, but she was still relieved that the Wookiee seemed to understand Basic, even if he couldn't speak it. "I need to get to Yavin 4." Leia said in a low voice. "Quickly, and under the radar. Do you know a pilot that can get me there?"

The Wookiee gave a gruff grunt and nodded to his left. Leia followed his gaze to a human male sitting in a booth in the corner. "Him?" She asked.

The Wookiee nodded. He got up and made a gesture that clearly meant he wanted Leia to follow him. She stood, and followed him to the table. The Wookiee sat down next to the human and uttered a series of soft, poignant grunts. The man looked at Leia skeptically.

"Han Solo. I'm captain of the _Millennium Falcon_. Chewie here says you're looking for passage to Yavin 4?"

Leia nodded. "Yes, if it's a fast and clean ship. No registration, no affiliation with the Empire or any of the major trade guilds."

Solo grinned. "What, some kind of local trouble? You look a little young to have gotten involved in anything too serious."

"Let's just say I'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements." Leia said smoothly.

"That's always the trick isn't it? Then it'll cost extra. Ten thousand. All in advance." The pilot shot back.

"If you get me there without anyone knowing, I'll give you twenty. Now, can you do it or do I need to keep looking?" Leia trailed off as she looked around the bar and realized that that her options were looking increasingly slim.

Solo winked and put his hands on hers. Leia stiffened at the casual contact. "Relax, sweetheart, you got yourself a ship. Meet me in docking bay 94 as soon as you're ready to depart."

She jerked away from him. "I'm ready now. And don't touch me."

"Whatever you say. So do you have a name, or what?"

She hesitated for only a moment. "Padme. My name is Padme."


	9. Chapter 9: Escapes

Something caught Han's attention. He looked past Leia for the briefest instant. "Alright, Padme. I've got to take care of some business before we take off, but if you want to go ahead, my ship is docked in bay 94. The _Millennium Falcon_."

Leia nodded. "Alright. Just make it fast, will you? The sooner I get off this planet, the better."

She stood up and pulled her hood over her head as she left the cantina. She made her way through the dusty streets of Mos Eisley, drawing on the Force ever so subtly to make herself forgettable to everyone she passed. Now that she was aware of it, she saw herself everywhere. It seemed like every screen she passed on Tatooine had her image on it, with the enormous bounty flashing temptingly underneath. The Mos Eisley docking bay was the largest building in town, and Leia had no trouble identifying it. She kept her eyes carefully down as she walked towards it.

Three stormtroopers guarded the door. Leia stopped half a kilometer from the docking bays and cursed silently. She looked around quickly, and saw a small landspeeder parked next to a small fruit stand. Her fingers twitched, and the speeder's engine hummed to life. The speeder began to move slowly at first, but it quickly picked up speed as it moved down the street. The speeder began to attract attention as people stopped what they were doing and stared, pointing and yelling for someone to stop it. Leia's hand pointed to the left and the speeder sharply turned and crashed into a junk dealer's shop. There was a loud explosion followed by several screams.

The stormtroopers instantly ran towards the site of the crash and Leia slipped silently into the docking bays behind them.

Docking bay 94 looked must like the rest of Mos Eisley: shabby and run down. It was a sharp contrast to the elite and up-to-date imperial bays that Leia was used to. The sloping sides were made of crumbling stone instead of smooth steel, and the bay itself consisted of little more than an entrance ramp and an enormous pit. But the state of the docking bay was nothing compared to the ship.

It was an ellipsoid ship that must have been passed through several owners. That was the only possible explanation for the hodge podge of its construction. It looked like it had been made out of fragments and components of other ships deemed unflyable, and were the situation not so serious, Leia might have laughed at the thought of this thing even getting off the ground, much less making it to lightspeed.

"So what do you think?"

Leia whirled around to see Han leaning against the entryway with his arms crossed and a satisfied look on his face.

"What do I think? This ship is a piece of junk!" She exclaimed. She turned to look back at the ship. "Is this some kind of a joke?"

"Hey, she may not look like much, but she can make it point five factors past lightspeed. I've put in a lot of special modifications myself." Han said defensively as he crossed over to the ship and patted the hull affectionately. "And I'm sick of everyone calling her a piece of junk!"

 _Well, if the shoe fits..._ Leia thought, but she kept her opinion to herself.

"And as it turns out, I'm actually a little rushed myself. So if you'll just get on board, Chewie and I will be right behind you and we'll get out of here."

The pilot turned back towards the door to the hangar and peered outside, one hand cautiously on his blaster. Leia watched him with a little bit of concern, but he was still her quickest way to get to Yavin 4 so with a little trepidation she boarded the ship.

The inside of the ship was just as worn as the outside, but obviously cared for. She sat down at a dejarik table and tapped her fingers nervously. Several minutes passed, and neither Han nor Chewbacca appeared. What was taking so long? She stood up and walked into the cockpit and looked out of the window. She saw Han and Chewie standing in front of the walkway up into the _Falcon_. Except now there were several armed men standing around them, and in the middle was…

 _A Hutt_. Leia thought. She shivered in revulsion. She'd never actually met one since they'd largely lost their influence when the Empire formed, but she'd heard stories from her father. He was usually pretty tight-lipped about his past but once he had actually told his children that he had been owned by Gardulla the Hutt as a child.

Han was gesticulating grandly, pointing up into the ship. She bristled, realizing that he must be talking about her. Hadn't she told him she needed to stay under the radar? Hutts were nothing if not greedy, and if this Hutt realized Han's passenger was worth two million credits…

But then, the Hutt waved his entourage off. After a few parting words for Han, the Hutt turned and left. She saw Chewbacca look questioningly at Han, but the Corellian waved him off as they boarded the ship.

"What was that all about?" Leia asked when they entered the cockpit.

"Just a little confusion over a business deal, nothing for you to worry about." Han said coolly. Leia could vaguely sense his unease, but she decided not to pursue the matter. "If you'd like to take your seat, we'll be leaving this junk heap."

Leia returned to the dejarik table as she heard the _Falcon's_ engines roar to life. The ship took off surprisingly gracefully and the town of Mos Eisley quickly shrank to the size of a pinpoint as the _Falcon_ entered the atmosphere. 

Once they were in space, however, the ship suddenly rocked and Leia was thrown out of her seat. There was the sound of blaster fire. "Han?!"

A stream of Corellian curses streamed from the cockpit. She struggled to sit up "Han, what's going on?"

"There are four Star Destroyers orbiting the planet!"

Leia's heart sank. _Four?_ She _knew_ they'd been able to trace her TIE fighter. "Are any of them Super Star Destroyers?" She asked, dreading the answer.

"No, just your regular imperial class...wait a second."

Leia didn't need him to finish. Her father's presence suddenly filled her veins. She could feel him reaching out through the Force, searching for her. And he was furious.

"There's a Super Star Destroyer coming out of hyperspace!" Han yelled. "It's Vader's ship!"

Leia sprang up and ran to the cockpit where Han and Chewbacca were furiously trying to outmaneuver the imperial ships. The _Executor_ loomed in their line of sight cruising almost lazily. "Can't you outrun them? I thought you said this ship was fast!" Leia was struggling to keep her rising panic under control.

"Watch your mouth, sweetheart. I don't exactly outrun Super Star Destroyers every day! Don't worry, I know a few maneuvers, we'll lose them."

A wave of TIE fighters flew out of the Star Destroyers towards the _Falcon_. Even though she, unlike Han, was fully aware of what was at stake, Leia was shocked by the Empire's display of force.

Chewbacca was growling as his hands moved surprisingly fast over the controls. "Get our rear deflector shield up, or we're not getting very far!" Han ordered as he watched the fighters close in.

Chewie harrumphed in response and flipped the nearest toggle switch. "What exactly did you do to get Vader on your tail?" Han barked at Leia.

"Long story." Leia muttered. She threw up her arms instinctively to shield herself from the bright red light flashing outside as the ship rocked again. "There has to be something you can do!"

"I'm making the calculations for the jump to lightspeed, but it's going to take a few minutes. Until then…"

Han trailed off as he made the _Falcon_ turn sharply to the right, towards the _Executor_. The sudden change in proximity to Vader caused Leia to rock back in terror. "What are you doing? Are you crazy?!"

"They aren't going to risk firing on their own ship, are they?" Han shot back as the hull of the _Executor_ loomed dangerously close. The _Falcon_ soared alongside the Super Star Destroyer and sure enough most, but not all, of the TIE fighters pulled back.

Leia couldn't watch anymore. She left the cockpit and fairly collapsed in the walkway. She knew they wouldn't blow up the ship with her onboard, but there was nothing stopping them from incapacitating the _Falcon_ and arresting Han and Chewie once they'd extricated Leia. She could feel Vader gloating, he must almost have them. Two more deaths that would be all Leia's fault…

...then all of a sudden, the ship rocketed into hyperspace and she couldn't feel her father or hear the cannons firing anymore. She exhaled slowly. They'd made it.

Somehow Leia didn't feel like celebrating.

"Well, you can forget your troubles with those imperial slugs.I told you I'd outrun them." Han said smugly as he appeared in the doorway. "And now, I think you owe me an explanation."

Leia didn't look at him. "That wasn't part of our agreement."

"No." Han said agreeably. "But anytime I have to out maneuver four Destroyers plus Darth Vader there had better be a damned good reason. Now who are you, really?"

For a moment, Leia considered lying again. But the time for deception was gone. "My name is Leia Skywalker. Darth Vader is my father."

Whatever Han had been expecting, that definitely wasn't it. He leaned up against the wall next to Leia and ran his hands through his hair. "You've got to be kidding. _You're_ the imperial princess?"

"I was known as Lady Vader." Leia corrected him out of habit, before she could stop herself. "But I've turned on my father, and the Empire. I have with me the technical readouts for a battle station capable of blowing up entire planets, and I'm going to see to it that they make it to the rebellion so they can destroy it."

Somehow, Han's face turned grayer. "So that's what happened to Alderaan. The Empire claimed responsibility but I thought it would take a thousand ships with more firepower…"

"You've seen what it can do." Leia cut him off. "So you know why it has to be destroyed."

"I don't get it." Han said as he sat down next to her. "I've been hearing vague stories on the HoloNet for days about a theft from an Imperial base, but they were blaming the rebellion. So it was really you?"

Leia shook her head unhappily. "No, it really was the rebellion at first, but I intercepted them on Danuta. I was still an imperial agent at that point, and they were downloading the plans onto the chit when I found them. I guess they planned to transmit them to the _Tantive IV_ , but I didn't know that at the time."

"And you didn't kill them?"

"I meant to. But then one of them mentioned my mother...I never knew anything about her, you see, not even her name. My father refused to talk about her. And after growing up knowing that Luke was going to be a Sith like my father...she just sounded so different than everything that I thought I knew. I guess it was the first time in my life that I wondered if there might be a different way...if maybe the dark side wasn't the only way…"

"How did you know?" Han asked curiously. "If you didn't even know her name, how did you know that they were talking about her?"

"The Force sometimes...it leads you to things." Leia tried to explain. "Things that you are searching for, especially if you don't know if yourself."

Han looked skeptical at that, but Leia continued. "Anyways...I didn't know what to do. I did take the plans from them, but it wasn't hard for me to convince them to just...continue on with their mission. I waited for them to leave before triggering the alarm, figuring it wouldn't hurt to let them escape since they didn't actually have anything, and they would probably lead us to some of the rebellion's leaders. I went straight back to Imperial Center intending to hand the plans over to my father. But then I found out about the _Tantive IV_ and I met Senator Organa and things started moving so quickly. I kept meaning to give them back, I just...didn't. And then I wouldn't."

"And now you're on the run from Darth Vader." Han leaned his head back against the wall. "Geez, sweetheart."

"If you don't want to help me anymore, I understand. Just drop me off at the nearest port, and I'll find another ship…"

"Hey, don't be so dramatic. I said we'd get you to Yavin 4, so we're going to Yavin 4. This wasn't my first run-in with the Imps and it won't be my last."

He patted Leia on the shoulder, stood up, and went back to the cockpit. She watched him go, and wondered if she should follow him and insist that he drop her off somewhere. Getting away from Tatooine had been way too close for comfort and Leia absolutely did not want to put anyone else in danger. But then it was also very likely that their close encounter had already doomed the _Falcon_ because Vader had sensed her presence. Even if they did separate the Empire would likely still hunt Han and Chewbacca down. At least if Leia stayed with them, she could potentially barter for their safety if they got caught.

She sighed. Now that that was decided, there was one other thing she needed to do. Although she had closed herself off to her father, she needed to talk to Luke. She needed to apologize, needed him to understand why she was gone. He _had_ to understand; he was all that Leia had. She wasn't concerned about making contact with him. Not even Force users could track a person through hyperspace. She took a deep breath, entered a meditative state, and reached out for her brother.

 _Luke…_

But there was nothing. She frowned. Nothing had ever been able to separate her and Luke before. Their twin bond, or whatever you wanted to call it, had always seemingly been unbothered by distance, emotion, anything. But now Leia felt an emptiness inside of her where her brother had always been.

 _Luke...can you hear me? I...I'm so...I'm sorry._

For a moment, there still was nothing. Then there was brilliant flash of red light, and a wave of anger so powerful that Leia felt like she had been punched in the stomach and she doubled over, gasping for air. She looked up and saw her brother.

 _Luke…_

 _Leia._ The image of her brother said curtly.

She stood up slowly, peering at her brother. There was something different about him. He seemed rigid and distant and when she looked into his eyes, she gasped. His eyes, once a bright and brilliant blue, were changing. There was a distinct yellowness to his pupils that had not been there before. _Luke, what is happening to you?_

 _You left me._ Luke answered, ignoring her question. _You were all that I had, and now you're gone. You were selfish!_

 _I couldn't stay, I made a choice. My biggest regret is leaving you. But you still have our father._

 _Our father._ Luke scoffed. _All he cares about is my power. He took me from the Death Star, after you left. And he...I…_

 _What is it?_ Leia cried desperately. _What is he doing to you?_

 _Do you know what has happened to me since you left? Do you know what I am becoming?!_

 _Tell me!_

But Luke only grimaced, and then he was gone.


	10. Chapter 10: Yavin IV

A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. I'm really grateful that you're still here reading this. I've been doing a lot of revisions over the past few months, and I think that while I'm still planning to finish this story, I'm going to basically start over. This chapter is a product of my new thinking, so you may find Leia to be a little harder/darker. Feedback is always appreciated.

XxXxX

At some point Leia must have fallen asleep, because the next thing that she was aware of was a violent jolt and a roar as the tranquil silence of lightspeed vanished. They must have re-entered real space. Several moments later, Leia could hear the characteristic shrieks of rebel X-wings and the _Falcon_ shook as its shields were met with blaster fire. She also heard Han arguing with someone on his comlink.

"No, I don't have a clearance code! I've been trying to tell you, I've got an imperial defector on board that you're going to want to talk to!"

Leia sprang to her feet and sprinted down the corridor to the cockpit. The jungle moon of Yavin 4 loomed close in their view. There were no less than eight X-wings darting in and out of view, and they all seemed to be taking turns firing on the _Falcon_. Between the sound of blaster fire, Chewbacca's howls, and Han's swearing she could barely hear the crackling voice on the comm. " _Millennium Falcon_ , you are entering restricted airspace. Turn back immediately."

"Have you not contacted these people?" Han yelled at Leia.

"And how was I supposed to do that? On the imperial network?!" She snapped back.

"So you've been making this up as you go along?"

"Pretty much."

Han rolled his eyes. "Great. You know what? If we manage to get out of this without getting blown apart, forget my payment. I'll be happy just walking away from you in one piece, Lady Vader."

"Leia!" She corrected as the ship rocked again.

Chewbacca let out another howl.

" _Millennium Falcon_ , this is your last warning. If you do not break off from your present course your ship will be disabled and you will be taken into custody."

"Oh, Sith." Leia muttered. She grabbed the comlink from Han. "Attention Yavin 4. This is Leia Skywalker. Cease fire immediately. I have the copy of the Death Star plans that you have been looking for." She took a deep breath. "Lord Vader does not know I'm here."

There was a long silence on the other end of the comm. Leia and Han looked at each other nervously.

Then suddenly, the X-wings pulled back. " _Millennium Falcon_ , you have permission to land. Follow your present course to the Massassi Valley and docking bay 5."

Han closed his eyes and exhaled. "Thank you." He said under his breath. He signaled to Chewie, who began the landing protocols.

As soon as the ship landed Leia exited with Han and Chewbacca behind her. At first it seemed there were only two men there to greet them, but as she took a few more steps, about thirty rebel fighters came into view, their blasters ready to fire.

"I knew this was a bad idea." Han muttered.

Chewie woofed in agreement.

"Drop your weapons, put your hands above your head, and slowly walk down the hatch." The man closest to them ordered.

Han and Chewie immediately dropped their blasters and raised their hands, but Leia only narrowed her eyes. She had not been raised as the daughter of Darth Vader to meekly obey anyone who tried to order her around. "Is this how you welcome defectors that come in peace?" She asked.

"That remains to be seen." The first man responded. "Put your hands up where we can see them. Now."

Slowly, Leia raised her hands. But then her lightsaber leapt from her belt into her hands, and she ignited the blade. "Do you really think you could stop me from destroying this entire base if I felt like it, General Rieekan?" She asked him, letting them know that she knew exactly who they were.

"Spoken like the daughter of Darth Vader." The second man, who Leia recognized as imperial defector Crix Madine, said sharply.

The barb hit home. She bit her lip angrily and tightened her grip on her lightsaber. She looked around, all of the fighters had their blasters trained on her but she wasn't afraid. She knew she could kill every one of them if she wanted to.

The venom in that one thought made her stop. She forced herself to look past the blasters to the men holding them. In every single face she saw fear. Fear of the weapon she held that they probably all associated with Darth Vader, fear of her and what they knew she could do to them. And just like that, the anger melted away from her.

She deactivated her lightsaber and threw the hilt towards General Rieekan, who immediately gave the signal and four rebels surrounded her. Her hands were forced behind her back and into binders. The metal cut into her skin, but she barely noticed. She was forced forward as another group of fighters took Han and Chewie into custody. "They're innocent!" Leia said sharply, fighting back for a moment as they were lead away. "All they did was get me here. They deserve to be allowed to go in peace."

"That remains to be determined, Lady Vader." General Madine said crisply. A gesture from him signaled the men surrounding her to search her. She stiffened at the intrusiveness of so many hands, and the one to her right stood up with the data chit that had been hidden in her boot. Madine took the chit and examined it closely. "Is this it?"

"Yes." Leia said through gritted teeth.

The two generals conferred quietly with each other for a moment before turning back to her. "You will remain in the detention block while we review the data on this chit to see if it's what you claim it is. If so, you will be released. If not, you will be subject to further interrogation. Is this clear?"

She glared at him, but she refused to argue with him. If he got some perverse joy from locking up Darth Vader's daughter, then let him. She knew they were all aware that they couldn't keep her locked up if she really didn't want to be held.

XxXxX

For the first time, Leia had an idea of what it was like on the other side.

Not that the Empire and the rebellion could really be compared. While the rebellion was small and scared, which could make them desperate, Leia knew firsthand how the Empire made fear and torture its' trademark. But still, being confined to a small cell with her fate in someone else's hands was making Leia crazy.

The cell she was in was small, only about three meters square, with a bench that served as a cot and a chair in the opposite corner that was bolted down. All four walls were opaque so she couldn't see outside her cell, but she knew that she had round the clock guards because she could hear them change about every six four hours. She was slipped a meal tray through a slot at the foot of the door, but that was the only time she caught a glimpse of anyone. She felt like she was being treated like a bomb, and the rebels were afraid she'd explode if they got too close.

 _I guess I can't really blame them for that._

The guards had changed four times and Leia estimated she'd been there for approximately a full standard day when the door to her cell opened and a woman stepped in. Her hair was a rich auburn and cut very short, and she wore flowing white robes accented by a hanna pendant . "Senator Mothma." Leia said, recognizing her from the Senate.

"Lady Vader." Mon said calmly as the door shut behind her.

"Leia, please." Leia said. She gestured at the door. "No guards?"

"I don't think I need them." Mon smiled wryly. "Thank you."

Leia shook her head. "For what?"

"For not leaving."

"I'm in a cell." Leia said drily.

"We both know that wouldn't stop you." The older woman said evenly. "So why didn't you?"

Leia shrugged. "Because if I did, it'd only confirm me as a monster."

Senator Mothma nodded at the truth in Leia's words as sat down in the chair opposite her. "We've finished going through the data chit. The information you've provided is extremely thorough."

"Your spies are very thorough. All I did was intercept what they managed to steal."

Mon smiled at that. "Yes. Leia, against the advice of some of the others, I am prepared to let you walk out of this cell, but first I must ask you. Surely you know what this data means to us and what we plan to use it for. Do you really have nothing to lose?"

"No." Leia said firmly.

"Luke…"

"Is not on the Death Star."

"What about your father?"

She looked Mon Mothma directly in the eyes. "I said no. What about my pilot and the Wookiee?"

"They have already been released and heavily compensated for their troubles."

"Are they still planetside?"

Mon nodded. "Making some kind of repairs to the ship, I believe."

"Good. I will be leaving with them, then, as soon as I am released."

Mon leaned a little closer towards Leia. "Why leave? You've done the rebellion a great service today. We could use a fighter like you."

Leia looked away from her then. "Like a Force user? I won't be a figurehead for the rebellion against my family."

"But I thought you just said you had nothing to lose." Mon pointed out mildly.

"That doesn't mean I don't know what they're capable of!" Leia yelled, suddenly furious. "You have no idea! I've spent my entire life in the shadows of the Empire! I've seen things you couldn't even begin to imagine! Do you know what will happen to everyone here if you do manage to blow the Death Star up? There will be no quarter, there'll be no surrender. They won't stop until every single one of you has died screaming on a prison planet so far away that the galaxy has already forgotten about you. They've already shown they're willing to blow up a planet…"

"And that is exactly why you should stay." Mon interrupted. "You can help us make sure that what happened to Alderaan can never happen again. You can ensure that Bail Organa and the rest of the _Tantive IV_ didn't die in vain."

Confusion jolted Leia out of her furor. Then she remembered; the rebellion thought Bail Organa had died on the _Tantive IV_. They didn't know he'd been taken captive. They didn't know that she'd tried to break him out. She took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll help you destroy this thing. Because I saw what it did to Alderaan, and I won't let them destroy any more worlds. But that's it. Once the Death Star is gone, so am I."


End file.
